IS EVERYBODY 100% POSITIVE THERE IS NO GOD?

I wanted to put this question out there to see how strongly everyone feels on this subject. Being that most of us trust in scientific fact and reasoning, I was wondering if everyone is absolutely, undeniably, 100% sure that a god doesn't exist. I personally take into account that there is no proof of any cosmic creator so therefore I am about 99.9999% sure that there is no god. However we all agree that science is an ever evolving field and I don't think that there will ever be any proof to support the existence of a supreme being, but I can't be 100% sure until there is concrete proof against one. I would like to know what all of your thoughts on this.

I agree, I think it's safe to say with confidence that no deity as of yet described exists. That is to say the deities worshiped by the myriad of theologies are (often poorly) imagined. However, I think it is entirely possible, even plausible that somewhere in the utter vastness of space exists a species so far advanced that if we were to ever encounter them, they would appear god-like. Of course this species would have come about by wholly natural processes and devoid of any preternatural abilities (though to us they may seem magical).

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I thought I was the only person who thought that there could possibly be "sufficiently advanced" aliens out there... >.>;; After all, many things we do today with technology would be considered magical to peoples thousands of years ago!

That statement assumes all people previous to last millennia even had the concept of magic. But many didn't, some tribesmen have no words or concepts for that which does not exist, they live strictly in the near present, at a utilitarian level.

I think the same goes for any reasonably intelligent human... if something out of our sphere of knowledge were to happen, such as an alien landing in town and showing off new tricks, we would not call it magic but simply a technology which we havn't yet mastered.

Are you sure that some tribes don't have any way of digesting incomprehensible things? Not magic, not religion, not anything?! Rain is utilitarian, but how would they go about trying to explain it and control it when in need of it?

I'd be surprised of any existence of such tribes, and really really interested in finding out more about them.

I'm under the impression there's always going to be ONE little twerp in a tribe, to be the first to say he understands it all. And then almost everyone else starts believing him.. and burn those who don't.

That is also one of our own Western civilisation biases. In several cultural anthropological studies, it is observed that really old style tribes don't dwell on those things. Yes there are things they don't understand, but the point is not WHY? but ... how can I effectively use it. They were extremely utilitarian. The unexplained deserved very little brain time.

If you think they are strictly utilitarian, you haven't listened to their stories told around the campfire at night. Of course they have no words for what they BELIEVE doesn't exist -- but they definitely have words for what they DO believe exists. Creation myths and fears of demons (or whatever you want to call them), taboos, sacrifices, medicinal rites, etc. are universal. It's a totally human desire to explain the world, and if you don't have advanced science, then you resort to the supernatural. Technology may be a concept they don't have a word for, though.

I don't buy the "innateness" of religion idea, though, for cultural reasons, I do agree that it appears universal, among modern civilisations and those indigenous peoples that have mingled much with Northerners. But in studying truly untouched tribes, researchers have found it impossible to impart the notion of "spirituality to them. It's not that they've evolved differently, genetically they're identical, it's just that their peoples never got onto the "must explain everything" bandwagon. Society developing religion was a huge bonus for the expansion of the Homo sapiens populations. Tribes that did not catch on to religions are simply less invasive. Religion is simply a tool that was developed to control people's activity, gods (of varying definitions) are but the psychological weaponry to accomplish that power.